During this uncertain time, most people are concerned about their income and how this might be affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. We insure our cars, homes and businesses but too few of us think about insuring one of the most important assets we have – our salary.
An Income Protection policy will pay you a replacement income if you are unable to work at your current occupation due to illness or injury.
- You can insure up to 75% of your earnings, factoring in any State Disability Benefit you are entitled to.
- There are various deferred periods that you can choose from -this is the length of time that you have to be unable to work before you can claim.
- Income Tax Relief applies to these premiums at your marginal rate.
Have a look at this example to see the benefit of having Income Protection:
Laura works as a self-employed accountant and has a salary of €60,000. She realises that if she was to get sick and unable to continue working for a while, her family would soon begin to struggle financially. Her mortgage and bills will still have to be paid and it would be unlikely that they could manage to support their two children on her husband’s income alone. As well as this, having an illness often results in increased expenses such as medical appointments, prescriptions and even increased fuel costs as she might have to travel to see a specialist.
Laura contacted one of Sheridan’s financial advisors who researched the entire Irish market for her and found the best and most competitive policy, most suited to Laura’s needs. Laura and her husband have some savings built up so she choose a deferred period of 13 weeks. This is the time she would have to wait to submit a claim. As she’s self-employed, she is not entitled to any state benefit so she can cover the full 75% of her earnings i.e. €45,000.
Now Laura has the peace of mind in knowing that if she suffers an illness or injury and is unable to stay working, after 13 weeks her replacement income will kick in. She’ll start receiving a monthly income of €3,750 which will continued to be paid to her until she returns to work or reaches her retirement age. Better still, Laura is claiming tax relief at 40% on the Income Protection premiums.
Contact Sheridan Insurances today to see how we can help you protect what’s most important.